Many, especially young, mobile phone users today use their mobile communication terminals more as a tool for sending text messages than as a voice communication device. A typical use case for such users is to perform “chat sessions” with another user, during which, typically, a very large number of messages are sent/received to and from that person. These sessions of multiple exchange of messages are not necessarily synchronized. That is, the case may well be that one user sends two messages rapidly, one after another before the other user has had time to send a reply message. Current handling of such situations in most prior art communication terminals does typically not support an optimized handling for this; if the user receives a new message from the person when replying to a previous message, there is no easy way to see the new message and to, e.g., include a reply to the most recently received message.
Not only these users that perform such “chat sessions”, but also more “traditional” users of message services may often receive multiple messages from one and the same other party—and within a very short time. However, replying to multiple messages is typically very cumbersome, especially if the procedure of recording a reply has already been initiated when a second and third (etc.) message are received from that other party.
When receiving a new message, for example an SMS within the framework of GSM or UMTS, from one and the same sender when replying to a message, the user will need to first exit a message reply editor, then read the newly received message (which may not even be from the same sender), and finally, the user will need to re-enter the message reply editor to continue the reply procedure. Typically, in this situation, the original reply-address (typically a mobile phone number) is removed from view and the user will have to find the number manually, due to the fact that, typically, the reply address/number is only kept as long as the message reply editor is active.